


High of 15ºC and a 60% Chance

by liar_iago



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: M/M, Multi, Ombrophobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-18
Updated: 2015-03-18
Packaged: 2018-03-18 12:23:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3569561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liar_iago/pseuds/liar_iago
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tetsurou isn't proud of himself for every battle he loses against the rain, but sometimes it's less about getting over something and more about learning to rely on the people you love to help you get through it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	High of 15ºC and a 60% Chance

**Author's Note:**

> so this was a really quick little thing that i did! it's basically a drabble and there's not much to it but i wanted to get it out there ;v;
> 
> could be considered a sequel of sorts to The Weather Today, but they don't take place in the same universe 
> 
> enjoy!

Tetsurou is a firm believer in integrity as a virtue.

As far as he is concerned, people who cancel often on others are untrustworthy and should just admit that they don’t actually want to hang out.

That said, there is always an exception, and Tetsurou feels bad as he sends out the text to let his friends know he won’t be joining them for lunch today, but he knows that when they notice the dark clouds rolling in through the Tokyo sky, they will understand.

Predictably, Bokuto is the first to reply.

_its cool bro! we’ll go out some other time!!_

Akaashi’s reply is significantly more well put together and arrives several moments later.

 _Forgive me, Kuroo-san. I should have arranged a different date_.

Tsukishima sends no reply. He usually doesn’t when he knows Bokuto and Akaashi will respond, but Tetsurou still allows himself to be a little disappointed.

The first raindrops land on his window with a gentle _plip-plip_ noise, and he tries to forgive himself for flinching.

He finishes typing up a message to Akaashi to assure him he’s not at fault for choosing today to hold the now cancelled lunch outing, then closes the curtains with a sigh and pulls his comforter tighter around his shoulders.

His aversion to the rain isn’t something he can explain in plain words--at least, not without losing his listener within the first minute.

It’s not as if he’s suffered any sort of mental trauma related to the rain, nor is he the type of person whose mood is easily affected by the weather. All he knows is that he absolutely hates the feeling of water hitting his skin, and he has for as long as he can remember.

His parents tell him it started when he was around seven, not that he can remember much of his life from before fifth grade. What he does recall is that he’s always been uncomfortable taking showers over baths, and his growing uneasiness in rainy weather culminated in an incident during a walk home from school in sixth grade. At the first sign of rain, he had ducked into a small video rental store and refused to leave until it let up, even when his parents tried to take him home after receiving a call from the store owner.

The fear hasn’t gotten much better over the past several years, but Tetsurou can at least appreciate that it hasn’t gotten any worse, either. He still remembers spending entire nights under the bed with a pillow over his head, trying to drown out the relentless pounding of the downpour.

His watch beeps 12 PM, and he burrows a little deeper into his blankets. He wonders vaguely if the others decided to go to lunch without him, but figures that either way he is safer like this.

He doesn’t realize he is drifting until his eyes snap open at the sound of his cell phone chiming, and he opens a text from Kenma.

_u home?_

_yeah, I’m fine._

_good_

Tetsurou knows Kenma has already put his phone down and resumed playing whatever game he’s hooked on this week, but he also knows that he would have dropped everything if Tetsurou told him he was in a situation, so he taps down for Kenma to see whenever he next checks his messages:

_thanks for checking in._

The next incoming message arrives before he even switches his phone screen off, but the sender isn’t Kenma

 _Door_ , reads a text from Tsukishima.

It takes all of two seconds for Tetsurou to register what the message means, and he all but leaps out of bed with a happy gasp.

He makes it to the front door in record time, unlocking it for Tsukishima open from the other side and stepping back into the hall to wait for him.

“Hey, hey!” It is Bokuto who appears in the doorway, followed by Akaashi and Tsukishima.

“You all came!” says Tetsurou, launching himself at them as soon as they finish shedding their rain gear.

Bokuto catches him around the waist and effortlessly lifts him off his feet in a breath-stealing bear hug. “We couldn’t just go without you, man!”

“But what about lunch?”

Akaashi lifts a plastic bag filled with groceries. “We brought hot pot ingredients.”

“Dude, yes!” Tetsurou flings his arms around Akaashi’s neck and kisses him noisily on the cheek. Akaashi fusses (“Absolutely unnecessary--”), but Tetsurou doesn’t miss the fond smile that crosses his lips.

Tsukishima dodges Tetsurou’s kiss with a well-practiced fluidity and tells him: “You’re not wearing any pants.”

Tetsurou looks down and realizes that he is, indeed, standing in nothing but a pair of bright red briefs with “NEKOMA” embroidered on the waistband. “Oh. Cool.”

“Is that part of your team’s uniform?” says Bokuto with a delightedly baffled smile on his face.

“We did it as a joke during my second year, but they’re actually really comfortable,” says Tetsurou. “Wanna try ‘em on?”  

“Let’s not go there,” says Akaashi. “Kuroo-san, why don’t you go put some pants on while we get the hot pot set up?”

“You got it. Hot pot stuff’s in the cabinet next to the dishwasher,” says Tetsurou before heading back upstairs to find a pair of sweats.

The others have made it into the kitchen by the time he returns, but they seem to have hit a roadblock.

“-- _specifically_ reminded you to buy beef and you still bought mackerel instead,” Akaashi is saying to Bokuto like a parent scolding a child.

“He likes mackerel!” is Bokuto’s defense.

“Also, you ate all the bean sprouts on the way here,” accuses Tsukishima casually.

“I was hungry! I’m the only one who likes them, anyway,” says Bokuto.

“Since when? Maybe I felt like having some today,” says Tsukishima with a shrug.

“You’re just saying that!”

“That aside, mackerel isn’t suited for hot pot, Bokuto-san,” cuts in Akaashi, picking up from where he left off. Tetsurou has never seen such a seamless tag-team, and he can’t help but feel sorry for Bokuto.

“Why don’t you two cut him some slack?” he interjects, and the three of them freeze at the sight of him like they’ve been caught doing something inappropriate. “Jeez, what’s with this tension?”

Bokuto’s face falls. “We wanted you to have a nice day in so you could forget about the rain,” he says. “I messed up.”

“Hey, don’t be like that,” says Tetsurou. He hooks an arm around Bokuto’s shoulders and pull him in to ruffle his hair, drawing a laugh out of him. “I know you were looking out for me.”

Akaashi lets out a small sigh. “I can go back to the store and buy some meat.”

“You don’t have to do that. I’m sure I can find something,” says Tetsurou.

The freezer is full to the brim (somehow, it always is), and Tetsurou manages to dig out some sliced beef for them to use.

“This should work, right?”

“Dude, nice save,” says Bokuto.

“What do we do with the mackerel?” says Tsukishima.

Tetsurou shrugs. “Dinner? We can deal with it later. I just heard Bokuto’s stomach start its engines.”

-:-

By the time they’ve finished cleaning up after lunch, the sky is launching a full-on assault on every side of the house, as if it’s trying to force its way in, and Tetsurou knows he won’t have to ask to get them to stay a bit longer.

The game room is the best place to be when it rains like this. It only has one window, and the couch is big enough to fit all four of them. Tetsurou brings the comforter from his bedroom, and by the time Bokuto is pulling him in against his chest, he’s already feeling drowsy.

His eyes are closed, but he knows the hand carding through his hair belongs to Tsukishima and the one rubbing slow, perfect circles on the inside of his wrist is Akaashi’s. Bokuto’s heart beats evenly against his cheek, loud and powerful enough to drown out the insistent pounding of the storm outside.

He’s so warm like this, but it’s also more than that. He feels weightless, like everything around him has disappeared and he could be floating off into the atmosphere for all he knows, and the only things keeping him grounded are their gentle touches and the steady, unfaltering heartbeat in his ear.

He knows without a doubt that where he has them, he has sanctuary.

“You know, I feel like there are a lot more drier places he could have chosen to go to school,” whispers Tsukishima.

“Well, I could see how a full ride to Tokyo University would be hard to turn down, but you have a point,” says Akaashi.

Bokuto doesn’t say anything (he is uncharacteristically careful on days like these) and simply holds Tetsurou a little tighter.

“He likes Tokyo,” Akaashi continues. “His parents told me once that they wanted to move when they found out about the condition in grade school, but he insisted on staying.”

“There’s hardly anything special about this place,” says Tsukishima.

Through the haze of semi-consciousness, Tetsurou manages a languid smile. “There is,” he murmurs. “Keeps me close to you guys.”

Tetsurou can almost feel Tsukishima rolling his eyes. “Right, because you already knew in grade school that you were going to meet us.”

“I didn’t,” is all Tetsurou says, because he can’t seem to muster up the energy to tell them about the days he spent as a kid, stubbornly telling himself over and over that all it took was time and a little courage to grow out of this terrible phase until he didn’t have it in him to believe it anymore.

He’s just a little too far gone to tell them about how close he was to giving up when he found them and when they taught him that afraid was okay, afraid was a part of him but it wasn’t the definition of him. That when he was afraid, they would be there, and they would give him a real reason to stay.

Tetsurou doesn’t say any of this aloud, but as he drifts off to the subtle rhythm of their breathing, there comes the realization in the back of his mind that they probably know all of this already because they know him, and he will never be more vulnerable than when he is with them, but only _to_ them.

It's strange, but he knows that this is what it means to be safe, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

 

**Author's Note:**

> i purposely left the specifics of kuroo's condition unclear because i did very little research and i didn't want to make any assumptions about these conditions, but his behavior is typical of people with certain anxiety disorders or disorders like OCD. in the context of this fic, however, it can also be assumed that he simply suffers from a mild case of ombrophobia. 
> 
> thanks for reading!!


End file.
